SCOTTISH actor Iain Glen is set to return to the screen as maverick Irish crime fighter Jack Taylor.

The former policeman's adventures take place and are filmed in and around Galway on Ireland's dramatic west coast and are based on author Ken Bruen's dark fictional tales.

Iain, best known for roles in Tomb Raider, Game Of Thrones and for playing Sir Richard Carlisle, the newspaper tycoon suitor of Lady Mary in the second series of Downton Abbey, says that the striking locations are as much the star of Jack Taylor as his leading role.

In this new drama his character resolves to stay away from drink, but his sharp tongue and soft heart are evident as he defends the broken and pursues lost causes in this hard-boiled story.

Iain, 51, who lives in south London with his partner, actress Charlotte Emmerson and young daughter Mary, five, says: "Filming Jack Taylor in Galway is very picturesque. We use the town and the countryside around it as much as possible.

"The people of Galway are really quite proud of Jack Taylor and it really is a bit of a ball when we are filming out there. They are always shouting 'Jack' at me out on the streets.

"He is a complicated soul and he has a drink problem. He is outside of society and outside of the police force. As an occupation, acting is outside of the norm too so there is a bit of Jack in me.

"He can't help what he does and I can't either. It's not a huge crossover but when the writing is good you do not need first-hand knowledge to play a part."

We meet the star of Channel 5's brilliant tough new drama Jack Taylor

At the end of the Nineties Iain appeared naked in the West End production of The Blue Room opposite Nicole Kidman and last year he filmed What About Love with Sharon Stone.

"Actors can find themselves working with someone they don't know but who may already have seen them as nature intended," says Iain. "I might have seen Sharon Stone naked before I met her and she might have seen me naked!

"I'm quite comfortable being naked, it's part of the job. Men are very lucky because no one is really interested in their private parts.

"I haven't been involved in something where there is gratuitous sex. The most visible I was was probably in The Blue Room at the Donmar where Nicole and I both had to strip off at different points during the show. I didn't mind it at all because the story dictated that was what needed to happen. Nicole is lovely to work with. It was a dream job. We both had roles to play and it was great fun to do the job.

"There is not much nudity needed for Jack Taylor. There are just a couple of intimate scenes but I do keep my underpants on under the sheets."

At this point he stops to take the second call from his teenage son Finlay, from his earlier marriage, then returns to our chat. "Kids, eh? You can't live with them and you can't kill them. I am very family orientated and I would spend all day with them when I am not working. My partner Charlotte is my backbone."

Charlotte is mainly a theatre actress and they performed together in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya last year. Iain says: "I might be competitive but she doesn't have a competitive bone in her body." In his early years Iain had a yearning to play James Bond. "I went to see the films and I wanted to be Bond. My family always used to see the films together. Daniel Craig has nailed that part now.

I am definitely too old for Bond but I could still be a baddie!" IAIN does not know whether Finlay will follow him into acting. "He is academically much more inclined than me, and capable; and I have Mary, who just adores singing and entertaining.

"She just wants to be the centre of attention but she is not into The X Factor or those shows. She just wants to be doing it herself."

Iain is no stranger to music himself and on his website (iainglen.com) you can watch him singing and playing the guitar. "I have always been into music. I grew up listening to Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and David Bowie. It was a good time to grow up and I have a good vinyl collection.

"When I am not working and being a father, I play the guitar and I would like to sound like James Taylor..."